


Burning love

by StarryKnight09



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [25]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: FebuWhump2021, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29638782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryKnight09/pseuds/StarryKnight09
Summary: “Don’t try to deflect.” Tony pointed a finger at him.  “You’re going need to explain more than 'you got distracted' before I even think about letting you touch that equipment again.”Peter huffed in irritation.  “I was thinking about how to ask MJ out to the spring fling dance and I wasn’t paying close enough attention.”Peter instantly regretted the admission when Tony’s face split into a wide grin.  “A girl huh?  All of this is because of girl.  See, that I can believe.”Febuwhump Day 22: Burned
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138670
Comments: 8
Kudos: 146





	Burning love

Peter hadn’t been paying attention. He knew better, but he’d been distracted thinking about the best way to ask MJ to the spring fling dance. Even after Tony had harped on him over and over again about lab safety and always being careful and blah blah blah, which Peter thought was more than a little hypocritical because the other man was the antithesis of everything he preached about.

Regardless, one moment he’d been thinking about whether inviting MJ to the dance required flowers, and the next moment he forgot to move the hand holding together the two Ironman armor pieces so it accidentally got in the way of the welding torch he was using to meld the seam. It happened so fast, for a split second Peter just froze in shock, staring at his damaged hand even though he couldn’t see much through his welding mask. Then the pain hit him and he sucked in a sharp breath. He fumbled with the blowtorch for a second before he managed to turn it off. Flipping his safety mask up, he examined his hurt hand, no longer filtered through the mask’s lens shade. 

“Oh shit.” He swore as soon as he noticed the streak of red blistering skin across the back of it.

“What?” Tony perked up from across the room. Peter’s back was to him, so he couldn’t see what had happened. “Did you screw something up? You need some help?”

“Uh…no. I’m uh I’m good.” He stumbled over the words because oh god ow his hand hurt. He really wanted to run over to the sink and shove it under some cold water, but there was no way Tony wouldn’t notice that and he didn’t want him to know how stupid he’d been. Tony would be pissed, and there was no reason the man needed to know when it should heal itself relatively quickly anyway.

“You sure?” Tony asked, only his voice came from much closer. Peter put the torch down and turned around, careful to keep both hands behind his back while still trying to look casual.

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s fine. Totally fine.”

“Uh huh.” Tony narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re a terrible liar.”

Tony peered around him to look at the armor and Peter twisted so he stayed facing the man.

“See? It’s fine. I didn’t mess it up.” He said, voice tight because oh god oh god his hand his hand. He’d been shot before and it hadn’t hurt this much. What was it about burns that caused such exquisite pain?

When Tony didn’t find anything wrong with the armor he turned his gaze back on Peter, eyes narrowing as he studied him.

“Why are you sweating?”

“It’s hot in here.” He answered but it sounded more like a question.

“FRIDAY what’s the temperature in here?”

“It is currently 70 degrees Fahrenheit.” FRIDAY responded.

“Mmhmm so any clue why the spiderling here is sweating?”

His eyes widened. 

“I believe it is secondary to the burn he just sustained on his left hand.”

“FRIDAY!” Peter protested the snitching at the same time Tony snapped, “What?” and grabbed his arm, yanking it forward so his hand came into view. The man swore as soon as he saw the burn and Peter’s face scrunched. It looked even worse now than it had a minute ago.

“What happened?” Tony demanded even as he dragged him by the wrist over to the sink.

“It slipped.” 

“It _slipped_?” Tony echoed in disbelief as he guided Peter’s hand under the stream of cold water. Even though the coolness helped, the pressure from the water hurt. He grit his teeth. Ow. Ow. Ow.

“How did it slip?” Tony asked. “Aren’t your spidey powers supposed to keep these kind of things from happening?”

Peter frowned. Was he talking about his spidey sense? “Um no. I mean if some bad guy’s shooting at me then yeah, it’ll warn me, but it doesn’t warn me from myself because I’m not a bad guy.”

“That makes no sense.” Tony shook his head as he brought Peter’s hand out from under the faucet to look at it for a few seconds before shoving it back under again.

Peter winced and tried to explain, “Um it like senses intent? So if someone wants to hurt me and then they try to it’ll warn me, but I didn’t want to hurt myself, I didn’t have any bad intent, so it didn’t warn me. Does that make more sense?”

“No. It should warn you either way.”

“Well, I mean yeah, that’d be nice, but it doesn’t.”

Tony huffed and pulled his hand out from the water again, turning off the faucet. “Come on let’s get you to the medbay.”

“Oh. No. I don’t need the medbay. We can just leave it. It’ll heal in a day or so.” He protested even as Tony dragged him to the door.

“Yeah that’s going to be a big fat no.” Tony shook his head. “We’re going to get this taken care of.”

Peter groaned.

“So what are we dealing with here doc? Is he going to be able to keep his hand?” Tony joked as Dr. Cho finished examining the burn.

“It’s a second degree burn.” Dr. Cho explained. “But it’s over a relatively small area. With his healing powers it should be completely fine in a couple days.”

“I told you.” Peter complained.

“I’ll put some burn salve on it and wrap it.” Dr. Cho said as she started gathering the necessary supplies from the cart next to the bed. “I imagine it hurts, so once I’m done, I can grab you some of your pain pills if you want.”

“Oh no that’s ok. I’m good.” He hated his pain pills. They helped get rid of the pain, but they knocked him out too, and he didn’t feel like sleeping the day away over a stupid burn. He’d come up for the weekend to spend time with Tony. He wasn’t going to let a momentary lapse in judgment take that away.

“I’ll give a couple to Tony in case you change your mind.”

Peter sighed but didn’t argue. She could give them to Tony but that didn’t mean he’d be taking them.

He watched as Dr. Cho slathered the burn in some cream and then wrapped it in gauze. Once she'd finished, she handed Tony a couple pills and then gave Peter a small smile. “You’re all set. Stop by sometime tomorrow and I’ll take a look at it and re-wrap if it needs it.”

“Thanks Dr. Cho.” Peter said, jumping off the exam table, more than ready to leave.

“Back to the shop?” He asked as they walked out of the medbay.

“To do what? You only have one working hand.” Tony scoffed.

“So do you and you manage pretty well.” Peter snarked. Tony had survived after snapping the gauntlet but he’d paid for it with his arm. He hadn’t let it slow him down, though. He’d fashioned an even better one out of the same nanotechnology he’d used to make his suit.

“Not the same.”

Tony led them back to his rooms in the compound. “Sit.” He ordered Peter. “I’ll grab you some water.”

Peter actually listened for once and plopped down on the couch, picking up the remote with his good hand and turning on the TV.

“So, tell me again how this happened or you’re losing your welding privileges.” Tony said as he handed him a glass of water. “Actually, either way you still might. I haven’t decided.” 

He took a drink of the water before setting it down on the side table. “I told you. It slipped.”

“And I’m not buying it kid. There’s no way it just ‘slipped’.” Tony put the word in air quotes. “But if you keep insisting, I guess I'll just have to have FRIDAY play the footage.”

It wasn’t an empty threat, and he knew if Tony watched it he’d see right away he hadn’t slipped.

“Fine.” He rolled his eyes. “I was distracted and I forgot to move my hand. Happy?”

“No, I’m Tony.” 

“Oh god that’s such a dad joke.”

“Don’t try to deflect.” Tony pointed a finger at him. “You’re going need to explain more than 'you got distracted' before I even think about letting you touch that equipment again.”

Peter huffed in irritation. “I was thinking about how to ask MJ out to the spring fling dance and I wasn’t paying close enough attention.”

Peter instantly regretted the admission when Tony’s face split into a wide grin. “A girl huh? All of this is because of girl. See, that I can believe.”

“Oh god don’t get all weird about it.”

“You need some advice? Not that I’m the best one to give advice when it comes to romantic uh stuff, or so Pepper would say.”

“No. I don’t need any advice.” He shook his head.

“Ok, so how are you going to ask her?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” 

“Sounds like you need advice.”

“No I—”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t worry too much about it kid. Just go up to her at school on Monday and ask, ‘Hey MJ do you want to go to the spring ding—”

“Spring fling.” He corrected, not quite sure if Tony had butchered the name on purpose or not.

Tony waved a hand dismissively. “—together?’ If she’s anything like you’ve described her, she’ll appreciate the straight forwardness.”

That was probably true, but part of him wanted to make it special. “You don’t think I should get her like some flowers or something?”

“Flowers? To get asked to go to a dance?” Tony pulled a face. “I wouldn’t think so, but then again I haven’t been in high school in…actually never. I skipped that part of my childhood.”

Peter smiled.

“You know what? I think this calls for an expert.” Tony took his phone out and put it on speaker as it rang.

“Tony?” 

“Hey Pep. Quick question. The kid wants to ask his girlfriend out—”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Peter interrupted.

“You hear that?” 

“Yes I did.” Pepper said and Peter could hear the smile in her voice.

“Anyway, he wants to ask a girl out to some spring a ling dance.”

Yep, he was definitely doing it on purpose. Peter didn’t bother to correct him this time.

“Does he need to get her flowers or something or should he just ask her? I thought he should just ask her, but then he mentioned flowers, and I honestly have no clue how the kids are doing things these days, so we thought we’d check in with the master.”

“And that’s me?” Pepper asked in amusement.

“Yes dear.”

“Well, I think for once you’re right.” Pepper said and Tony did a little fist pump.

“Just ask her honey. She’d be crazy to say no to you. And then when she says yes, you can bring her flowers when you pick her up to go to the dance. Ok?”

“Ok.” Peter responded. “Thanks Pepper.”

“It’s no problem. I’d wish you luck, but I know you won’t need it.”

“All right. Thanks Pep.” Tony said.

“You’re welcome.”

Tony hung up.

“See? Easy. Now, if you’d just brought this up when you’d gotten here you wouldn’t have had to suffer.” Tony gestured toward his bandaged hand.

Peter rolled his eyes. “I didn’t want to say anything because I knew you’d make a big deal out of it.”

“But I didn’t, did I?”

Peter side eyed him suspiciously. “No. You didn’t.”

“So, on that note…do we need to have the talk?” Tony asked, arching an eyebrow at him, but Peter could tell he was just messing with him.

“Oh god. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.” 

Tony laughed.

Monday morning came and his hand had healed. Only a faint red line remained and he figured it’d be gone by tomorrow. As he walked in, he decided to commit to following Tony’s advice. He fidgeted all through the first half of the day until lunch period. He’d seen MJ in class, but he didn't think that was the best place to ask her with everyone else around, so he waited until they were alone in the lunch line together before taking a bolstering breath and asking. “Hey MJ?”

“Hm?” She replied distractedly as she read the book in her hands.

“Do you, uh…do you want to go to the spring fling with me?”

MJ looked up from her book and the barest hint of a smile crossed her face as she raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you asking me out Parker?”

“Um yeah.”

“Like as a date.” She clarified.

“Yes…”

“Ok.” She gave him a nod and went back to her book.

“Ok? So that’s a yes?”

“Yes.” MJ smiled but kept staring at the page in front of her.

“Ok yeah um great. That’s great! Uh, thank you.”

MJ snorted.

“I mean uh cool. It’ll-it’ll be fun.”

MJ kept reading and Peter tried to play it cool, but he couldn’t help pulling out his phone and texting Tony, ‘She said yes!’

‘Of course she did.’ Tony replied quickly. ‘We’ll start brainstorming flower ideas next weekend. But not around any heavy machinery.’

Peter smiled and shook his head. That was actually something he didn’t need Tony’s help with. He’d thought about it and already knew what kind of flowers he wanted to get her. Actually, he wasn’t going to get her flowers at all. A few months ago, she’d mentioned her favorite flower was the black dahlia because of its significance in the infamous Hollywood murder. Since flower shops didn’t exactly carry bouquets of black dahlias, he’d searched online and found a black dahlia necklace. The moment he saw it, he knew it’d be perfect. He glanced back at MJ, unable to keep the smile off his face even as she kept her nose buried in her book. The dance was only a month away. He couldn’t wait.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to have MJ in one of these! I loved her and Peter in Far From Home (for the small amount of time I managed to ignore the pall cast over that entire movie because of you know who's death). Hope you enjoyed it! Only six days of Febuwhump left...
> 
> Come hit me up on [Tumblr!](https://starryknight09.tumblr.com/)


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